Mizzou grad Edith Finke, a nurse for North Shelby School District in Shelbyville, has two primary goals: being involved in the entire school's health and making sure those students with illnesses obtain an education.
Each morning as the sun breaks over the horizon, Edith Finke kisses her husband Loyd goodbye, leaves their farm and drives her Mercury Mariner into town. As the school nurse at North Shelby School, Finke oversees 400 students, teachers and staff that call the K-12 buildings home during the academic year.
In her 30-plus years of nursing, Finke has seen her role expand from simple administration of medicine to managing complex health issues both on an individual and public health basis.
The '72 Sinclair School of Nursing graduate works in the rural northeast portion of the state; and over the years she's developed her philosophy on school health - keep students healthy so they can keep learning.
"Every day I try to reach two primary goals," Finke says. "As a nurse, I should be involved in the entire school's health as well as the community's. The second is that students with illnesses still need an education."
Reviewed 2014-04-24